Chapter Text
Kuro startled out of his reading by the sound of stomping feet and turned towards his door. The sound went by without stopping, but he knew it was Genichiro; his cousin had been getting angrier, it seemed, with every week that went by. It was an open secret now that Isshin was sick and nothing Emma could do was healing him, just slowing the progression of the illness; retainers who didn’t realize Kuro was usually in this room would have discussions right outside his door about the likelihood of Isshin stepping down from leading the country and Genichiro taking over.
Genichiro had already been handling most of the paperwork, leading what there was of the Ashina’s military, and making most of the decisions for years; Isshin had been a figurehead for most of Kuro’s memories, but an important one. The Ministry was scared of him and his fighting prowess. Kuro had even gotten to watch him fight once, a careful duel with a much younger samurai home at Hirata, and Isshin had won easily without once being in danger of injury.
The footsteps again, coming to his door. Kuro had barely seen Genichiro since Dogen died. Apparently there had been more attacks, more raids by the Interior Ministry recently and he had been busy. There was a knock.
“Yes, Lord Genichiro?”
“Divine Heir.” Kuro felt a chill; he vaguely remembered the old lady at the estates calling him that. While Takeru had mentioned it, and claimed the title, Kuro had not. Even with his research Kuro felt like he knew barely anyhing about the Heritage and wasn’t comfortable claiming it. Genichiro apparently felt differently. “The raids are getting worse. We are losing more soldiers now, and some of our generals. You have the Dragon’s Blood. If you accept me, perhaps several of the other generals-”
“I tried, Lord Genichiro, and it-” Genichiro didn’t know it had taken, that Wolf had hopefully lived; Kuro suddenly had the realization that Genichiro probably shouldn’t know.
“You told me. You got to him too late, Kuro, but I am not about to die right now. We cannot let what happened at Hirata happen here.” And with that Kuro felt himself get angry. He rarely did; it took a lot. You got to him too late . He had spent practically the entire trip to Ashina crying on his shoulder, he had been crying again when he told the Ashina about losing Wolf on top of the rest of the raid, and now Genichiro was going to use that against him. You got to him too late .
“You told me it couldn’t happen here.” With how angry he was it was dangerous to provoke him like this, Kuro knew, but did not care as much as he should have. It had been what, nine months? Since he had come to Ashina and been reassured that another massacre would not happen. Genichiro did not look away, but Kuro saw his jaw tighten. “Can Ashina not be defended by your forces?”
“...Come with me.” Not a tone that allowed dissent, and neither was his grip on Kuro’s shoulder.
“We managed to drive them back once. But the Interior Ministry’s army is far too powerful.” This was in the outskirts, barely; it was just outside the castle gate. Genichiro had finally relaxed his grip, but this was the first thing he had said since they left Kuro’s room. Kuro could barely drag his eyes away from the pile of soldiers. Every one was in Ashina colors.
“And that is why… you wish to use the power of my blood? It doesn’t matter how much power you obtain. You’ll keep on fighting until you’re a monster, incapable of feeling pain or fear… I … do not wish to corrupt the lives of men…” Even if he could give the heritage, even if it drove the Ministry back a few more times, even if he could give the heritage to Genichiro and not watch his cousin become more of a monster, they would learn and come back for him, and Ashina would end how Hirata had.
“Look at this mountain of bodies. Ashina cannot be defended by normal means. Not anymore.” There was some strange inflection in that last sentence that took Kuro a moment to understand before he gave a small gasp at the realization. The missing sediment Emma was concerned about. Whoever Doujon was, he had not taken it. Genichiro had. And whatever else it did, wherever it was from, it must have been why he was so angry all of a sudden. Emma had called it a corrupting influence, and Genichiro had taken it.
“I could… never be as strong as you, Lord Genichiro. I do not yet know… what I should do…” Had he corrupted Wolf similarly by giving him the heritage? He thought it worked, hoped that it worked, but as the weeks passed and Wolf did not appear his small hope sputtered. Was Wolf like this, now, angry all the time?
“It has been a long time since... that happened. Wait all you like, it will do you no good.” Silence, for a minute, then Genichiro put his hand back on Kuro’s shoulder and began walking around the bodies again, but not back towards the castle. “You will be in the Moon-view Tower until you agree. Or until the Ministry overruns us all.”
Wolf did not have to stop and hunt this trip through the pass; there was enough left growing along the trails he barely had to slow down. No snow helped as well, and he had crossed back through the pass in a fraction of the time it took to transverse it the first time.
This was one of the smaller villages he had passed through on his useless quest, a few days on the Ashina side of the pass. Wolf debated stopping here to ask about the road to Ashina proper, but decided against it. It was the center of power for this area; it wouldn’t be hard to find.
He was lost. Again.
The center of power in this country was apparently as easy to find as old sen in the bottom of a muddy pond. Two weeks and Wolf had backtracked enough he hadn’t made any real progress. Roads were destroyed- were the Ashina really not upkeeping the roads they needed for traders?- and multiple villages were empty. There were soldiers around, small groups travelling around like he was, but they did not look familiar with the area and Wolf decided they were to be avoided.
Worse, the summer, not very strong this far into the mountains, was dying. The nights already were too cold for comfort; soon enough he would have to steal more cold weather clothing after selling what he had taken to get through the pass almost a year ago, now. He did have most of the money left, but as easy forage became harder to find it would be needed to buy food.
After another two fruitless weeks of trying to follow the roads Wolf gave up. Owl had taught him basics about how a castle was run; lots of farmers and merchants and craftsmen nearby let the castle exist. That meant farm land, and the fields used to grow rice were easy to find. He just had to get up high and look for clear spaces, buildings, maybe even the castle itself if he was lucky. Whoever had taken Kusabimaru had not taken his grappling hook; even with how mountainous this country was he could get up high and look.
That looked like a village, that had some more fields around it. Following the curve of the mountain this way would let him see more, but he would have to descend quite a ways to get to that mountain, and it looked like the string of villages hopefully leading into the heart of the country went that way. It might be warmer further down, too. Wolf nodded and began making his way down into a valley.
This was… better, in a weird way. Kuro only saw the servant who brought meals and occasionally Emma or Lord Isshin. He only had to see them; there was a bar that could lock his door, here in the Moon-view Tower, and he hadn’t unlocked it for Genichiro or the retainers who had come to talk to him. And they had stopped after the first week, grasping that he would not share the Dragon’s Blood.
Several servants apparently under Isshin’s orders had come the second week bearing loads of books; they covered the staircase and most of the upper floor in a rough order as Kuro read through them, carefully shelving them only once he was sure they did not hold information he wanted. Most of these did not have information on the Heritage and were shelved, but he carefully combed through them, anyway. One of them had brought the spare clothing he had, the single kimono rescued from the estates and an amount of Genichiro’s old things that had been taken in to fit. He had also brought Kusabimaru, which Kuro kept near him while he read.
Emma was always welcome when she managed to visit; she seemed to feel guilty about what Genichiro had done. Isshin…
Isshin wanted what was best for him, probably, but had officially stepped down, apparently the day Genichiro had asked for the Heritage. It had been a shock, the first time he had come to visit Kuro after he’d been moved here; he had lost a lot of weight just in the past few weeks, so that now he was unhealthily skinny, and the few strands of his hair that had been black were as white as everything else now. He was still in good spirits, still acted like he always had, but Kuro could see he was getting tired by a few hours into their visit and feigned exhaustion himself to give his great uncle a reason to leave, then watched worriedly as he made his way back to the castle proper, unsubtly tailed by one of Emma’s apprentices.
Kuro knew he was distracting himself from the worry- Wolf was hopefully out there somewhere, all he could do was cling to the hope that he had given him the Heritage correctly, that it had worked, that Wolf was not being corrupted by it like Takeru had worried about Tomoe, and now he just had to wait. And now he could wait here, in a prison that locked out whoever he wanted, with more safety than he had felt in months. Now, he would follow Isshin’s advice and stay put; Wolf would come looking for him here, and then they could leave Ashina. That probably was not Isshin’s intention, but it was Kuro’s plan. Away from Ashina and Genichiro and the Ministry, somewhere where no one wanted to use him. All he could do now was read, look for information, and hope Wolf was out there somewhere, coming for him.
This was it. Finally. This had to be. A castle surrounded by deep valleys, most of the way in front cleared and populated by buildings. Going through the front was the smart plan, but Wolf had never met the Ashina and did not know if they would believe him claiming the position of Kuro’s shinobi. Kuro would recognize him, surely; but that depended on actually having audience with Kuro.
Wolf surveyed the castle from his spot across the valley. This was not the main castle itself, which was visible behind the rundown tower actually in front of him; this was an outlying set of structures. The valley had been filled in where a part of it broke off and ran into this area, but there was a large bridge to the right he could use to get up and to the castle proper. There may have been a few soldiers patrolling, but he couldn’t tell from here. It was time to cross the valley.
Wolf planned his approach to the castle itself as he began carefully descending. Kuro must have been in the main keep, where he would be safe; these were his relatives, it only made sense. He would have to find a way into the main keep and find Kuro without alerting anyone who might stop him. Then he could properly alert the Ashina that he had finally made it and resume his duties. He sighted on a rock across the gap, only a few tens of feet above the treeline, and swung over easily, but this rock wanted to hold onto his grappling hook. He frowned, thoughts derailed, as he carefully pried it free.
Wolf looked up; it wouldn’t be difficult to climb normally the rest of the way, but with the light already beginning to fade he would rather hurry. He caught onto another rock, pulled himself up to it, knelt again to try and loosen the grip the rock had-
-and froze, hearing something. A big something, brushing against the rock. Scales?
A snake. The biggest snake he had ever seen. Each eye appeared the size of his head, easily, even from how far down it was. He resumed trying to free the grappling hook, more quietly now, not breaking his visual on the snake.
It heard something, or felt vibration or whatever something that big must have done, because it turned its head towards him. Wolf froze again, hoping it would look away, it was moving away but still staring at him, oh it was preparing to strike -
And Wolf jumped to a ledge, clinging to the side as the snake shook itself after throwing itself headfirst into the rock walls of this valley, watching as it reoriented itself and looked for him while he tried to find a way out. The only way was further up, Wolf realized, watching the snake rear back again, but this time much closer to his wall.
When it struck the snake jerked back in pain; the sword was hastily embedded right where it would cut its nose open and Wolf had jumped the strike and held onto the head for just long enough to jump from the writhing snake to a ledge much further up the cliff face. Its head disappeared again as Wolf ran, conscious that he was now down both his grappling hook and the stolen sword, towards another set of ledges that should let him up to the bridge he saw.
He hadn’t expected some snake out of nightmares to live in this valley; it shook him just enough to not check for soldiers as he pulled himself up the final ledge and onto what was definitely Ashina territory. He got lucky, though; no one nearby, but he could hear them. Wolf breathed carefully, scanning the area, making note of the soldiers he could see-
-and one of them turned, and shouted, and drew his sword as Wolf realized the sun had set fully and now his eyes were giving him away. He hadn’t been worried or thinking about that for nearly a year; he had forgotten.
There had to be a way out, somewhere he could hide for a day so he could get around them, but no, the only way out here was back into the valley with the snake.
And unfortunately the soldiers running up saw an unknown shinobi invading Ashina.
Several soldiers were running towards him. Wolf had half a second to realize that he was not going to see Kuro if they grabbed him; he was going into a prison and no one would be listening to his reasons. He dodged a swing, kicked one of them in the knee and shoved him to the ground, but he had no sword and hadn’t been fighting for over a year, just travelling and the soldiers had the advantage. One of them grabbed him roughly and threw him to the ground, then immediately kicked his stomach hard enough to knock the wind out of him through his armor, though the pained yelp told him they paid for it. Something that sounded angry he didn’t catch, and one of the soldiers dragged him back to his feet, arm back, hand balled into a fist- caught, by a taller man. A samurai from the armor, not one of these low ranking soldiers.
“You’re a shinobi. Why are you here, sneaking into the reservoir?” Maybe he still had a chance to meet with Kuro, if the samurai was willing to listen, but this was his only shot.
“I am in service to the Hirata family-”
“The Hirata line is finished. Your master is dead.” Wait. No. Kuro couldn’t be dead, he hadn’t been chasing bandits for a year while his lord was in a grave. Something… Kuro couldn’t be killed, he couldn’t be injured, could he? Or was that just Wolf, Wolf who couldn’t recall enough of his time at Hirata to remember, trying to make excuses? Far away he heard the samurai give some orders, knew on some level he was being dragged somewhere, felt the impact when they dropped him in some pit, but he couldn’t process it. He had failed. He had failed . He had failed Kuro, and failed Owl. Kuro was dead.
He heard them walk away, and a few hours later heard the shift change with the sun, then heard it change again as he stared at the ground unmoving, and heard footsteps coming towards this pit-
-and there was a letter, dropped down in front of him.